Jesus Was Not Born On December 25th But Many Pagan Gods Were, page 1

Many Messianic Jews of the 1st century in Palestine used SOLAR REFERENCES (i.e. to the Birth of the Sun/Sun-god) to express their beliefs about the coming Messiah (at least to judge from the Dead Sea Scroll fragments and the Infancy Narratives ‘of the Lord Iesous’ in the 1st and 3rd Canonical Greek Gospel material ----whoever actually wrote them—being clearly derived from Hebrew Midrashic source material (e.g. Is. 7:14) in the Hebrew writings..

These Midrashic Legends (see Luke chapters 1-2 and the opening of Matthew's gospel narratives) were often embellished in semiRabinnic fasion using 'Aramaic Targum additions or re-wordings' [or from really bad Greek translations of ssome very weird and sundry Hebrew Vorlagen underlays]—and even taken from texts that were later deemed non-canonical !) seem to have used clear SOLAR references and adapted solar-pagan hymns (especially Egyptian psalms and spells) for their long awaited Messiah-Saviour to drive out the hated Roman Occupation

This Messianic Hope was an age old practice covering several centuries of writing (especially in Occupied Palestine) was generated centuries earlier under the brutal Babylonian Exile and Judaean Occupation as well as under the later Persian and Greek successive Occupations) so tracing these SOLAR MESSIANIC-HOPE REFERENCES, we can see why December 25th was eventually chosen to represent the birth-date of the Messiah

Especially since early Christianity (as the newcomer on the block in the Roman Empire who had more than 100 'saviour' cults just like it) had to compete with the Mystery religions e.g. Mithras, whose birth-date was also SOLAR in nature, i.e. 25 December each year ‘the date when the shadows ‘were seen to be getting longer on the Dial’ i.e. when it was noticed that the Days were beginning to lengthn , i.e. growing up gradually each day on the dial like a child...

For some of these solar-messianic reference source material in the Hebrew Underlay (Vorlagen) to the mangled Koine Greek of the (4) canonical Greek Gospels, see: e.g. the Scroll of the Book of the ‘prophet’ Malachi (written by the same hand who produced PseudoZechariah, chapters 9-12) e.g. Mal. 4 - adapted from a Hymn to Osiris

'And in that Day shall ARISE the SUN of RIGHTEOUSNESS, with HEALING IN HIS WINGS...' i.e. the idea that the Messiah will be exalted like the sun in its strength (i.e. noon); later Chrsitians interpreted the ARISING as RESURRECTION rather than mere EXALTATION of an executed martyr

or the Scroll of the Book of (trito) Isaiah chapter 60:1

'O you that are to announce the Gospel (lit. ‘good news’) to Zion, ARISE and SHINE, for YOUR LIGHT has come up!' &tc. (quoted from another earlier Egyptian Hymn to Amun, the sun-god)

We can see at a glance the Messianic-solar overtones with the earliest Christian communities as they overlap with pagan sun-worship hymns top the Sun as a dying and rising god (every day, and also every year at the solstices).

In the 4th 'canonical gospel' (according to 'John' whoever he was) we see 'Yohanon the Baptist' saying: 'He must increase, but I must decrease' which is a clear cut ‘solar’ reference to the dying and rising sun every day, but also the 'dying and rising sun' every year at the solstices.

Interestingly, perhaps ,the 3rd canonical Greek Gospel (according to 'Luke' , whoever he was) states that 'John the Baptist' and 'Iesous' were born EXACTLY 6-months apart from each other--

Which one can see that again, this 6-month separation (solstices) is a clear back-reference to the pagan Mystery Solar Cults at the time --and even overlapped with the Doctrine of the TWO AWAITED MESSIAHs written so much about in the Dead Sea Scrolls, i.e. the one Messiah of Aaron (priestly) and the other SECOND Messiah figure of David (or sometimes 'of Joseph') i.e. a kingly Messiah figure....

Early Christianity eventually adapted some of the solar cult material into their own worship (such as the Mithras Cult, their main competitor in the 1st 4 centuries, whose garb they eventually borrowed too, e.g. the pointy 'Mitre' (bishop’s) hat for the Overseers (lit. epi-skopoi) and the 7 fold sacraments &tc.)

Various Christmas hymns (sung by worshippers thinking of 'Iesous' who ‘rises’ like the sun) even as late as the 18th century in England also betray a solar-sun worship basis in terms of their actual lyrics -- which you can see at a glance --but only if you read the words very closely:

Joy to the WORLD (earth) the Lord (sun god) is come,
Let EARTH receive her KING ! Let every heart, prepare him room (i.e. make way for the sun in the sky at the Birth of the Sun between Dec 22 and Dec 25 when the shadows begin to 'grow again')

And Heaven (the sky) and Nature (vegetation at spring) sing ! While Fields & Floods, Rocks, Hills & Plains (i.e. nature singing at =spring)
Repeat the Sounding Joy ! (=spring)

No more let pains and sorrow grow nor thorns infest the ground (winter)
He comes to make his blessings flow (spring) !"
The words could easily be applied to the sun at Spring time (another key time of year for the Messiah in Christian traditions having to do with sacrificial blood letting = yearly life regeneration).

It certainly would not be a stretch to take modern day Christians to move back to solar-monotheism, which was the pre-Christian pagan ('wiccan') religious millieu before the Jewish Bible was thrust down their throats at the point of a sword…

The motto of early and middle Christianity was and will always be: “IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM, MELD IN PAGAN TRADITIONS WITH OURS…SO THAT NO ONE WILL NOTICE…” (‘just make sure they show up at all the church ceremonies and put their cash money in the offering plate…”)

[edit on 3-2-2010 by Sigismundus]